PHILADELPHIA—What we learned Sunday night from Duke’s 66-50 victory over Creighton to advance to the Midwest Regional semifinal next week in Indianapolis—besides the fact that occasionally, the Blue Devils have to settle for second billing to schools with slighter resumes, like Florida Gulf Coast, the winner of the early game at Wells Fargo Center:

McDonald’s cooks up good hoopsters

Despite the uprising by the lower seeds this weekend, it’s still better to have a roster packed with McDonald’s All-Americans.

Duke simply had too many good players for Creighton to compete with. If all the second-seeded Devils had were Seth Curry and Mason Plumlee, they would have had enough offense to subdue the seventh-seeded Blue Jays. Curry scored 17 points, this time doing more of his damage in the second half, as opposed to his hot start against Albany on Friday. Plumlee was again saddled with foul trouble, but facing a better opposing big man in bulky Gregory Echenique, he controlled the matchup easily.

Add the scoring of Rasheed Sulaimon (21 points), and the ball movement, rebounding and defense of Ryan Kelly, Tyler Thornton and Amile Jefferson, and a one-man show like Doug McDermott’s Creighton team could not keep up.

When in doubt, foul

Again, too many bodies to throw at McDermott, who, to a man, the Duke players struggled to find a comparison to as they prepared for his size and skill. The solution was to be physical, which made for an ugly second half with all the whistles and trips to the line—but which also kept McDermott from potentially winning the game singlehandedly. McDermott finished with 21 points ... but 12 came on free throws, and he did not have a basket in the second half.

"It was just so difficult," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It was the best defense we played all year."

Thanks to his 13 first-half points, Creighton trailed by just three as the break approached, and only because Thornton raced upcourt and chucked in a 3 off the glass at the buzzer did Duke lead 29-23. However, as they wore down McDermott and as he got virtually no help elsewhere, Duke gradually pulled away in the final 10 minutes. With seven minutes left, McDermott had outscored his teammates 21-17.

"They did a great job on me, realy physical, switched on every screen making it frustrating," McDermott said. "I missed a lot of shots I usually make, so that was unfortunate."

Creighton not ready for Big East

There was only a slim chance it would end any other way, but McDermott’s college career likely came to a close with the loss. He fouled out with 37.3 seconds remaining and left to a standing ovation from the remaining crowd.

"It was a tough way to go out," McDermott said. "It's hard letting the seniors down tonight. It doesn't take away from the last two years."

He and his coach (and father) Greg McDermott had said Saturday that there was a lot of information for both to collect and process, but he’s coveted by the NBA.

That means the program could well head out of the Missouri Valley and into the new basketball-centric Big East without a marquee player.